Day two in Costa Rica with a long drive ahead (rental car adventure is how we roll) to the Arenal volcano and hot springs. Half day "inshore" for roosterfish and others. The target was a rooster, which is basically a jack with a cool stripe and an even cooler dorsal fin.
The term Inshore is very simply not offshore. 28 foot open diesel with a T-top among the swells and close to shore. Very cool fishing amongst the giant rock formations with big, rolling waves rolling over them.
The technique was simply bump-trolling live bait on a circle hook, this time with 65 lb braid and a long mono leader and half ounce slip sinker. The bait was a live lookdown, a bait about the size of a huge, thin perch. Or a small flounder. It was bridled through the eye sockets, tossed out a good distance and I was told to hold the line in my finger. When the fish "thumps" it, allow it to run 12 seconds, engage and reel like mad to tighten and set the circle hook.
Which I did about thirty minutes into our drift. The captain also hooked up and when mine pulled off, I took his rod. And so began a long back and forth that was pretty much like a jack crevalle in 60 feet of water with heavy redfish gear. I didn't want to rock the boat and tighten the drag, so I didn't but probably could have and gotten away with it.
20 minutes later a beautiful 20 some-odd pound rooster was in the net and I was sweating. On to some bottom fishing for fast action on small snapper and grouper on cut sardines. And then we beat a hasty retreat, mission accomplished.
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